Calgary Flames: New fan? We’ve got you covered!

New Calgary Flames fan? Hopping on the bandwagon for Jaromir Jagr? Look no further, we’ve got you covered with everything you need to know about the Flames here!

Being a new Calgary Flames fans, or just a new hockey fan, in general, can be quite intimidating. And we’re all guilty of being bandwagon fans of a team at some point in our lives. I know I’m guilty of that last year with the Nashville Predators through the finals.

A lot of people even hopped on the Flames bandwagon in 2015. When it was somewhat known around the hockey world that if the LA Kings were to miss the playoffs, the Flames would be the reason why. Again, I know I’m guilty of hopping on different teams bandwagons when Jarome Iginla was on those teams (him playing on the Kings was very hard for Flames fans).

Right now, the Calgary Flames have stated that they’re ready for Cup contention. So they’ll (hopefully) be a fun team to watch. And right now, with legend Jaromir Jagr joining his first Canadian team, playing in what most likely is his last season, and potentially breaking the record for most amount of games played this season, he’ll be a player to watch. And maybe a lot of people will be hopping on the Flames bandwagon.

But you may not know a whole lot about the team. And you don’t want to ask people without looking dumb or looking like a “bandwagon” fan. Hey, we’re not here to judge. The more Flames fans, the merrier. Like I said, we’re all guilty of bandwagoning at some point in our lives.

That’s why we’ve got you covered here at Flame for Thought. We’ll go through the basics, who the rivals are, some fan-favourites, some iconic moments, and moments that we never, NEVER, talk about.

Let’s start off simple.

The Basics

What every new Calgary Flames fan needs to know are the basics. If you’re already a hockey fan, then you may already know some of these. If that’s the case, feel free to skip ahead. But let’s get on with the basics.

First, we have the captain of the team who is Mark Giordano (wears #5), a defenceman. He became the captain before the start of the 2013-14 season. There are also three alternate captains. Those include Sean Monahan (wears #23), Matt Stajan (#18), and Troy Brouwer (#36).

Let’s get on to some fan-favourites.

Current Favourites

One main fan-favourite is Johnny Gaudreau. He wasn’t taken until the fourth round of the 2011 NHL Draft, and now he’s one of the better players in the NHL. NHL.com did a re-draft of the 2011 draft last summer and put Gaudreau at first overall. He’s also a very small guy. His profile says he’s 5’9″, but he definitely looks more around 5’7″. He’s also only 160 pounds. So you don’t see this guy hit a whole lot. So much so that he won the Lady Byng Trophy this year as the most gentlemanly player in the NHL. He had just four penalty minutes the whole season.

Related Story: Johnny Gaudreau's Case for the Non-Olympics

Speaking of him being only 160 pounds, this happened in his rookie year in 2015 and it was hilarious:

This summer, he was also ranked as the 10th best winger in the NHL. And he’s always a fun player to watch, so definitely be on the lookout for #13.

Johnny is definitely the main fan-favourite, but recently, it seems like Dougie Hamilton (#27) has been becoming somewhat of a favourite by his funny character. The Flames traded for Dougie Hamilton in a draft-day trade in 2015. His year in 2015-16 wasn’t the best, and some people were thinking that he may be a bust. Not a lot of people thought this, but there were some.

But last season was a big improvement. He had 50 points in 81 games, a career-high, and was tenth among all defencemen in points. This summer, he was ranked as the 16th best defenceman in the NHL. But this isn’t the reason he’s become a bit of fan-favourite.

#DougieBomb

Lately, he’s been known for his Dougie Bombs. Basically, as a player is doing some sort of interview during intermission or after the game, he’ll go and photo/video bomb. And he’ll always do something funny. So much so that everyone was always waiting for him to show up during intermission or after games.

All the M’s

Something you need to know about the Flames is ALL OF THEIR M’S. They have what has been dubbed as the 3M line consisting of Mikael Backlund, Michael Frolik, and Matthew Tkachuk. The Flames have not only a lot of M’s, but a lot of Michkaeals. Yes, I have to spell it like that because they’re spelled differently. They have Backlund and Frolik like I mentioned, they also have Micheal Ferland, Michael Stone, and now Mike Smith. The Flames have a Mike on every line.

They also have more M’s, like Mark Giordano, Matt Stajan, and Tkachuk like I mentioned. Oh, and Johnny Gaudreau’s middle name is Michael. It’s like this whole team was meant to be.

New Faces

Now let’s look at some new faces in the lineup. We have the player who’s the reason that a lot of people may be hopping on the Calgary Flames bandwagon this year. And that is the 45-year-old legend, Jaromir Jagr. Calgary will be Jagr’s ninth NHL team he’s played for, his first Canadian team, and he has a long list of accomplishments to add to his resume.

Originally drafted at fifth overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1990, he’s played for eight different NHL teams, is a two-time Stanley Cup winner (both with the Penguins in 1990-91 and 91-92), is a five-time Art Ross Trophy winner, a three-time Ted Lindsay Award winner, a Masterton Trophy winner, a Hart Trophy winner, and has made the All-Star team eight times. From Czech, he has one Olympic gold medal, two gold World Championships, one gold European Champions Cup, two World Championship bronze, one Olympic bronze, one World Juniors bronze, and one bronze World Cup.

After months of rumours that he may be playing in Calgary, he was finally signed yesterday. And Flames fans are ecstatic to have a legend play on their team. He’s also hinted at this potentially being his last season, so he’ll be a player everyone’s going to have their eyes on. He may also break the record this season for most games played ever. That’ll also be fun to see.

Another new face is Travis Hamonic (#24). The Flames also traded for him on a draft-day trade (in the second round, though) this year.

Related Story: Travis Hamonic - Off-ice Hero

The crease will also have completely fresh new faces. The Flames traded for Mike Smith (#41) and Eddie Lack (#31) this off-season. Mike Smith is also a bit of an oldie, being 35 years old and starting to get to near the end of his career. But 35 years seems nothing now to Jagr now.

Red Mile

In Calgary, the city has 17th avenue, also called the Red Mile during hockey season. It was first somewhat established in 2004 when the Flames made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals (we’ll get to that later). During games, the bars on this avenue are completely filled during playoffs. And after games, it’s basically mayhem. The roads are all blocked because it’s just hockey fans covering the streets all along this avenue. It’s actually quite special to see, the city has a lot of pride in their hockey team.

Rivalries

Today, we’ll be talking about three enemies of the Calgary Flames. One of them isn’t so prominent right now, but two of them are in full force.

Vancouver Canucks

This is a rivalry that’s been alive for a while, but over the last two years, not so much. These are two of the big Pacific Division rivals. And we can’t forget about this iconic moment between the two teams with a line brawl two seconds into the game and resulted in 188 PIM in just the first period.

The Flames and Canucks played each other in the first round of the playoffs in 2015, where the Flames won the series 3-2 in an exciting comeback win in game 6 on home ice. However last year, the Flames and Canucks both didn’t do well and this past season, the Canucks also failed to qualify for the playoffs.

This upcoming season, it doesn’t seem like they’ll be making it again, and the rivalry isn’t exactly in full force right now. So let’s get on to the fun stuff.

Anaheim Ducks

This rivalry goes way back. I basically grew up with this deep, ingrained hatred for the Ducks. Ryan Kesler? No thank you.

I mean.. this past season they may have broken an NHL record for most consecutive losses with 24 at the Honda Center.. but you know. It’s whatever. But yes, it’s true. The Calgary Flames have not been able to win in Anaheim in the regular season since 2004 and in the playoffs since 2006. The last two times that the Flames have made the playoffs, they’ve been beaten by the Ducks. In 2015 in the second round and this past season, they were swept in the first round. But again, it’s whatever. We don’t have to talk about that.

Related Story: Flames broke a record - but not a good one

This rivalry has existed for a while but it’s really been more prominent in the last few years when the Flames have been doing better than they were in previous years. Will the Flames finally be able to win at the Honda Center? We may have some good news:

Will this be the year that the Flames can finally win at the Honda Center? Looks like we’ll have to wait and see.

Edmonton Oilers

Ah, the infamous Battle of Alberta. This is one of the most prominent rivalries in the entire NHL. Everyone knows about the Battle of Alberta. It was especially active in the 1980s when the Oilers and the Flames were two of the best teams in the league.

Lately, it hasn’t been super active since the Oilers haven’t made playoffs in ten years and were generally at the bottom of the league. But last season, both teams finally made the playoffs for the first time in a while. And both of these teams are projected in being two of the best in the Pacific Division this upcoming season.

I know I said that my hatred for the Ducks was deeply ingrained, but the hatred for the Oilers goes way deeper than that. I’m pretty sure I was saying “I hate the Oilers” in my mom’s belly.

Will we be seeing the first Battle of Alberta in the playoffs for the first time since 1991? Let’s all cross our fingers. Or maybe not because someone’s bound to get killed in that case.

All-Time Fan Favourites

We got through the current fan-favourites. Now let’s get to the all-time fan-favourites. We won’t be spending too much time on each player unless we want this to be extremely wrong. Don’t worry, as we did a countdown for the start of the regular season, we’ve written their complete career histories relating to how many days there were left until that season. We’ll reference each one so you can read more on each player if you’d like.

Lanny McDonald

Lanny McDonald was always known for his glorious beard. And I mean GLORIOUS. Look at this:

Lanny McDonald served as the Flames captain in the 80s and helped them win their first cup in franchise history in 1989. He retired right after the season ended after he finally and rightfully won his deserving Cup.

“You’ve done it, Lanny. You’ve done it.” gets me EVERY time.

He’s been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and was the first player in Calgary Flames franchise history to have his number (#9) retired. Just this past year, he was also inducted into Alberta’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Related Story: 9 days until the season starts - #9 Lanny McDonald

Mike Vernon

Mike Vernon (#30) is the only other player to have his number retired by the Calgary Flames. Vernon was also part of the 1989 Stanley Cup winning team as their primary goaltender. He also won another cup with the Detroit Red Wings some years later.

Vernon has yet to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, but he should be going soon. He is known as one of the best goaltenders in Flames franchise history. He set lots of records before Miikka Kiprusoff came and broke them all basically.

Speaking of Kiprusoff…

Related Story: 30 Days Until the Season Starts: #30 Mike Vernon

Miikka Kiprusoff (#34)

Kip is basically known as THE best goaltender in Calgary Flames history. I mean, yes there was Vernon, but Kip came and broke basically all of his records. He eventually retired in 2013 after the season ended, and in his last home game, where it was known that he could potentially retire, the fans gave him a very long and well-deserved standing ovation at the end of the game.

Kiprusoff played internationally on several occasions and had quite a successful career since being traded to the Flames. The only thing missing from his resume is a Stanley Cup.

Related Story: 34 Days Until the Season Starts: #34 Miikka Kiprusoff

Al MacInnis

Al MacInnis (#2) is a player who doesn’t have his number retired by the Flames, but it’s an honorary number part of the “Forever a Flame” program that still hangs up beside Lanny and Vernon. He does, however, have his number retired by the St. Louis Blues. MacInnis was also part of the 1989 Stanley Cup winning team (we’re starting to sense a trend here). During that playoff run, he led the playoffs in scoring that year with 31 points and won the Conn Smythe as the MVP during the playoffs.

He’s played internationally for different tournaments and was even part of the extremely memorable 2002 Canadian ice hockey team at the Winter Olympics who won the gold medal for the first time in 50 years. He’s also been in the All-Star games seven times in his career.

MacInnis was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007.

Related Story: 2 days until the season starts: #2 Al MacInnis

Joe Nieuwendyk

The pick the Calgary Flames used to draft Joe Nieuwendyk (#25) was the pick they had to trade for from the Minnesota North Stars that sent Kent Nilsson there. Headlines surrounding Calgary newspapers were “Joe Who?” Turns out he would be one of the best players in franchise history.

In his rookie year, he had 51 goals and got close to breaking Mike Bossy‘s record of scoring 53 goals in his rookie year. He also became the second player ever (after Mike Bossy) to reach at least 50 goals in his first year. For that, he won the Calder Trophy.

Nieuwendyk was also part of the 1989 Stanley Cup winning team (wow, surprised?). He’s also won two other cups and was part of the trade that brought Jarome Iginla to Calgary. Nieuwendyk was inducted into the HHOF in 2011 and is also known for making me think twice every time I spell his name.

Related Story: 25 days until the season starts - #25 Joe Nieuwendyk

Theo Fleury

Theo Fleury (#14) was again, another member part of the 1989 Cup team. He won with them as a rookie. And he wasn’t drafted until the eighth round in the 1987 NHL Draft, so it was a hell of a steal of a late-round pick for the Calgary Flames. This is definitely something Fleury is known for:

Fleury managed to break a few franchise records – beating Nieuwendyk‘s goal record and surpassing Al MacInnis‘ points record (both have been beaten). He came very close to being a part of the Triple Gold Club, with having an Olympic Gold medal and a Stanley Cup, he also had a silver medal at the World Championship.

Fleury has yet to be inducted into the HHOF, but we’re all anticipating it to come quite soon.

Related Story: 14 days until the season starts - #14 Theo Fleury

Jarome Iginla

Oh, Jarome Iginla (#12). The things I could say about him, so I’ll try my best to keep this short and sweet. Iginla served as the Calgary Flames captain for 13 years before being traded in 2013, with the hopes of achieving a Stanley Cup. He broke Fleury’s franchise records that I just mentioned.

Iginla is probably the biggest Flames fan-favourite right now. Except for last season when he got into a fight with then-Flame Deryk Engelland, but everyone still loves this guy.

In every NHL player in history, Iginla is currently 34th in points (third among active players) and he’s 15th in goals (second among active players, after new Flame Jaromir Jagr). He’s still a free agent right now, so we may be expecting him to announce a retirement. Which I am 150% not ready for, nor will I ever be ready for something like that.

Related Story: 12 days until the season starts - #12 Jarome Iginla

He may be #12 on the ice, but he will forever be #1 in our hearts.

Most Memorable Moment – Winning the cup in 1989

I want to talk about one of the most memorable moments in Calgary Flames history: Winning the Stanley Cup in 1989. The Calgary Flames went on to the Stanley Cup Finals for just the second time in franchise history.

The time before that, it was in 1986 where they lost to the Montreal Canadiens. This time in 1989? It would be against the Montreal Canadiens again. Lanny McDonald scored the second goal of the game in Game 6, which ended up being the last goal of his NHL career since he retired after this year.

The Flames heading into Game 6 were up in the series 3-2 and they managed to win 4-2, with the game-winner aka the Cup winning-goal scored by Doug Gilmour. The Flames also had a feat that no other team had ever done before – win against the Montreal Canadiens at the Forum. As many people know, the Habs have the most Stanley Cups in the history of the NHL. And lots of those came on home ice – at the Forum. Where no other team has won a Stanley Cup before.

Until 1989.

Related Story: Throwback Thursday - Winning the Cup in 1989

Actually, up until now, this would end up being the latest all-Canadian final. Yikes, Canada.

Now, I wasn’t alive for this time. But my dad was, and when we did a Throwback Thursday on this moment months ago, I asked my dad what the city was like. This is what he said:

We were driving around in my friend’s Corvette with the roof down yelling “Go Flames Go!”. We drove for three hours just around the city yelling about the Flames. Where we would go is we would drive down the 17th avenue, then turn on 11th street, go all the way around back to first street and go back again. We just kept doing that all night honking with everyone, everyone’s partying on the streets. It was so much fun. The city was so much fun.

This was the first, and as it stands, the only Stanley Cup that the Flames have ever won. Oh, but don’t worry, you won’t ever forget that because Oilers fans love reminding you about it.